After Paul Cezanne

"Femme nu" woodcut

1914

CEZANNE, PAUL (1841 - 1906) Portrait de Guillaumin (with the hanged man) Cherpin 2, c. 1873 Etching Only State known, 1000 copies As published in Die Impressionisten, Duret, Berlin, B. Casirer, 1909 6” x 4 3/4” The paintings of Paul Cezanne undoubtedly formed the single greatest influence upon the development of modern art. Rejecting all the current styles of the day he fashioned his own methods of composition, which led directly to the cubist innovations of Picasso, Braque and others. The creation of original lithographs and etchings played a relatively small role within Cezanne’s artistic oeuvre. This is somewhat surprising as one of his closest friends, Camille Pissarro, was perhaps the greatest and most prolific Impressionist etcher. It was only through the insistence of Pissarro, and that of another close associate, Armand Guillaumin, that Cezanne experimented with etching. In 1873, Pissarro had invited Cezanne and Guillaumin to stay with him at Pontoise and had also introduced them to Dr Gachet. Gachet was an enthusiastic amateur etcher and prevailed on all the artists who came to see him to try their hand at etching; he even prepared the copper plates, supervised the biting and pulled the proofs on his own press. In total Cezanne created fine etchings during 1873 at the press of Dr. Gachet. The first attempt was a landscape etching based upon one of Guillaumin’s paintings. The second etching was the Portrait of Guillaumin with the hanged man. Portrait of Guillaumin with Hanged Man is a delightfully casual study of Armand Guillaumin. Of much interest to Cezanne scholars is the amusing sketch in the upper left corner which depicts a tiny gallows with a hanged man. It is generally agreed that this vignette alludes to Cezanne’s famous painting entitled, The Hanged Man’s House, which was executed a year earlier at Auvers-sur-Oise.